A cause for alarm

THE reported measles outbreak in Taguig City should be a cause for high alert and alarm by health authorities in Pangasinan.

Not so much because the outbreak is about measles which had been effectively contained for a decade but because of the reported continued resistance of parents in the country towards having their children take vaccine shots.

As Health Secretary Francisco Duque III indicated on Wednesday, outbreaks are no longer a remote possibility as more people have become distrustful of vaccines due to the Dengvaxia controversy. Fortunately, no death in the province as been attributed to Dengvaxia and no possible outbreak of any disease has been noted.

The reported drastic decline in DOH’s nationwide vaccination coverage rates, from the ideal 85 to 90 percent to 60 percent early last month, is a cause for serous alarm.

Duque has warned that if the trend continues, measles might be the number one disease to lead to an outbreak, along with rabies and polio. Other vaccination programs for preventable illnesses, including measles, polio, tetanus and diphtheria have also suffered after the public scare.

The provincial government should take immediate steps that the vaccination program in the province will not be sorely affected, if it still has not.

 

Sereno resign

ALL indications point to a sure impeachment of Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno as 293 representatives, the majority of whom are President Duterte’s allies, are expected to cast their vote before March 23, the day Congress goes on recess until May 14.

The impeachment complaint accuses Sereno of, among others, allegedly not filing her correct assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs) years before she became Chief Magistrate in 2012, buying a luxury vehicle using public funds and making decisions without consulting her fellow justices.  Already, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III has ordered the robes for use by the senators, who would be the judges in the impeachment court.

Majority leader Vicente Sotto III said the trial could start in July. A two-thirds vote of the 23 senators can remove Sereno, whose predecessor, the late Renato Corona, was booted out in 2012 by the Senate for not disclosing income.

If there is one strand of wisdom left in Sereno’s brain, what should it tell the Chief to escape impeachment?  Resign.

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